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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29066454">The Wounds We Bear</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuriferousEyes/pseuds/AuriferousEyes'>AuriferousEyes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Azula (Avatar) Redemption, Child Azula (Avatar), Drabble, Family Bonding, Gen, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Ozai (Avatar) is an Asshole, POV Zuko (Avatar), Post-The Last Agni Kai (Avatar), Protective Siblings, Protective Zuko (Avatar), Sibling Bonding, Siblings, The Last Agni Kai (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 08:54:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>711</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29066454</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuriferousEyes/pseuds/AuriferousEyes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko makes a choice.</p><p>(There is no threat here, he tells her.</p><p>This is nothing but weakness, she replies.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Azula &amp; Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>127</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Genuary 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Wounds We Bear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Zuko loves Azula.</p><p>He loves her as an infant, fist rotund and pressed into her mouth as he crowds his mother’s bed. She is ruddy cheeks and a shock of black hair. His father, now their father, breathes her name into the world and it is a testament and honour.

 “Azula” Zuko repeats. She opens her eyes for him. There is a spark in them that Zuko does not recognize.</p><p>He loves her as she toddles beside him, feet sinking into the sand and slipping on the silt. He teaches her how to run from the waves, and pulls her to her feet when she falls. There are tears on her cheeks and he wipes them away, snapping a flame in his hands to distract her. She takes it from him and giggles, and Zuko glances back at his parents, wondering if they’re proud of him for being a good big brother. But his father’s face is imperceptible, staring at the flame in his daughter’s hands. And his mother looks into the sea as though it is a lifeboat.</p><p>He loves her as a child, cunning and swift. She bests him in everything he teaches her, she spits on the title of older brother. She is a rising star, burning and glory, and he feels like a pale candle. She bends fire with ease he can only dream of. She is not a hair out of place, or a single robe wrinkled.</p><p>But he loves her. Even when he hates her, when she goes from the annoyance of a younger sister to a true rival. Because even when she is callous in the daylight, in the evening she sits beside him and asks him to read to her. Because he knows she can’t sleep without lamplight and that she only eats fruit from their mother’s hands. Because he is the only one who can call her in the morning without fear of ire. Because even as Ozai molds her into his form, she is Azula and she opens her eyes for him.</p><p>And Zuko loves her now, as her screams rip her throat raw. She flails on the metal grate, chained by much more than the bindings on her wrists. Her hair is wild and uneven, those steady sharp eyes now hazy and wild. They bounce around the courtyard, seeing things Zuko will never be privy to. He breaks away from Katara and she grabs his sleeve. Zuko touches her hand but continues to move forward until he is in front of his sister. He kneels on the grate and it digs into his knees, joining the myriad of bruises he will bear.</p><p>Her face is pressed to the metal and she sobs. Open, wracking sobs and she sounds like a child. And she is a child, they both are. They are both children on either side of a war that neither of them are responsible for. They are both children of men who saw them as nothing but pawns. They are both children who have been left, and left again.</p><p>He stares at her the way she stared at him at his last Agni Kai. He bears witness to her pain, but he does not smile as she did.</p><p>“Azula,” Zuko whispers and her eyes open.</p><p>She flinches when Zuko grasps her shoulders and pulls her to straighten. The threat of fire is hot on her mouth, but he wipes her tears away. He lets her feel the cool of his touch.</p><p>There is no threat here, he tells her.</p><p>This is nothing but weakness, she replies.</p><p>She could kill him right now. She could turn him to ashes where he kneels, let the water under them carry him away to the sea. He could do the same to her.</p><p>But he embraces her. He has seen her gilded walls fall and knows that behind them is a girl who has spent years being strong because anything else was death. That she holds open wounds on her soul, and her dragon heart is bleeding.</p><p>He cannot undo what they’ve done. He can only heal, the way his friends have taught him. The way Iroh has taught him. So he embraces his little sister and promises to be a brother again.</p>
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